It could still be Gray day for England
SEAN DYCHE has challenged Andre Gray to be more like Harry Kane if he wants to win an England call-up.
Burnley’s boss feels his striker can take his game up a level by learning to be an allround threat like Kane.
Gray has been touted for his first senior international call-up when Gareth Southgate names his England squad for the friendly match with Germany and the World Cup qualifier against Lithuania later this month. It would be some turnaround for a striker playing non-League football with Luton less than three years ago.
Before their trip to Swansea today Dyche, above, said: “The basics are all there for Andre. Can he score goals? Yes, of course. You know the higher you go in your career, you’re going to need more tools.
“So it’s about adapting to the allround game, especially at international level.
“And Harry Kane’s been terrific. For me, he’s right up there as an allround centre-forward.
“He plays up there as a one or in a two, he can press, drop in. Andre, if he’s going to get in the England side, or enter their thinking, he has to be ready to take on people like Kane. He has things he can learn. He’s still improving.”
Burnley have not won away in the top flight since a 1-0 victory at Aston Villa in May 2015.
But Swans boss Paul Clement is not taking them lightly. “We are not more confident of getting a result because of Burnley’s away record,” he said.
“If anything, it makes you more worried that we can potentially be the place where they get that first win. We are focused on making sure that does not happen.”
Clement and Dyche will lock horns again after their academy days in charge of Chelsea and Watford’s Under-18 teams respectively.
But the former Bayern Munich and Real Madrid assistant does not want a repeat of the thrashing he suffered when his Derby side lost 4-1 to Burnley just over a year ago. “The scoreline was a little flattering, but it was still very disappointing,” he said. “I wasn’t at the club for too long after that.” RONALD KOEMAN has arranged for the hotel where Everton will stay tonight to screen the fight between David Haye and Everton fanatic Tony Bellew for his squad.
But the Toffees manager says the real clash he cannot wait to see is the head-to-head between in-form heavyweights Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane tomorrow – and he is backing the man in the blue corner to emerge with a points victory.
Unlike the two fighters, who have spent most of the week tearing into each other’s reputations, Koeman has nothing but respect for Tottenham’s Kane, who goes into the match level with Lukaku on 17 Premier League goals. “Only if we lost Lukaku and then we could get Kane would I swap,” he said.
Yet Koeman had little hesitation in backing his diamond from Antwerp to have the superior cutting edge at White Hart Lane.
“Both are really top strikers and finishers,” said Koeman. “Kane will always score goals because of his clever movement. But Romelu is physically a little stronger and on a long run is still a bit faster.
“They would both be in the Premier League top five strikers at the moment and probably in the top 10 in Europe.”
Lukaku has struck a valuable seam of form in that too. Rom has Ross Barkley playing in a similar role.”
Koeman has never made a secret of how much potential he sees in Lukaku. Earlier in the season he, perhaps regrettably, suggested that in time the Belgian could take his talents to a bigger stage than Everton could provide.
But while Koeman – who played a significant portion of his career playing behind Marco van Basten for Holland – has said that Lukaku’s finishing is up there with the best he had seen, he